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VR academy prepares high school students to become leaders in tech movement

Kristin Deily, for C Spire
Published 9:41 a.m. CT May 29, 2018

. Schools across the country, including right here in Mississippi, have been trying to prepare students to enter a workforce dominated by skills of the future. Unfortunately, schools haven’t always succeeded in ensuring students are learning what’s next in the workforce.(Photo: Courtesy C Spire)

According to data from LinkedIn, the top in-demand skills of 2017 were all in the science, engineering, technology and mathematics sphere – with a heavy concentration in computer sciences. This isn’t surprising. Schools across the country, including right here in Mississippi, have been trying to prepare students to enter a workforce dominated by skills of the future. Unfortunately, schools haven’t always succeeded in ensuring students are learning what’s next in the workforce.

But Vince Jordan and his company Lobaki, Inc., are out to change that. Jordan and his son Josiah started the company with two separate goals in mind: Create a successful virtual reality (VR) studio in Mississippi and create a skilled local workforce to help lead the industry. He’s helping students right here in the state find a leg up against their competition before they ever grab that diploma, giving them real-life, valuable experience in the VR business.

VR is something most people associate with science fiction, however, the technology is already a part of everyday life. As VR and augmented reality (AR) become more popular, the need for a workforce to create and innovate the technology grows.

“We are already seeing VR used in healthcare, technical skills training, education and other fields,” Jordan said. “There is a huge opportunity right now. It could completely turn around the fortunes of any community if they decided to focus on developing a VR/AR industry.”

Lobaki has partnered with other organizations and school districts in Mississippi and across the south to provide education and training in VR/AR technology. They are already up and running with their own VR Academy, and have launched programs in schools that bring the training and technology right to students and their teachers.

“The cool thing about VR is that it isn’t a field that is limited to just that certain group of people who are coders,” Jordan said. “Of course, that is a part of it, but because of the nature of VR development, there are places for people outside of coding. It takes a very special kind of person to enjoy and excel as a coder, but VR goes way beyond that.”

Set designers, script writers, game creators and more come together in a VR studio to create an extraordinary experience. Creating a VR/AR application incorporates different kinds of skills into an overall product that can go beyond a game to create powerful tools for the professional world.

“In some ways, it’s more like making a movie than coding software,” Jordan said. “We use really elaborate tools to create these VR and AR experiences, and there are lots of opportunities for people to find careers working in this field.”

Jordan knows that there is a lot of opportunity in the industry, however, there are simply not enough qualified people to fill all the jobs that the industry has already created.

Lobaki has partnered with other organizations and school districts in Mississippi and across the south to provide education and training in VR/AR technology.(Photo: Courtesy C Spire)

“The biggest challenges we encounter with students isn’t a lack of capability or enthusiasm,” Jordan said, “it’s logistics. It’s a question of how we get the students to us so they can participate in training. But the best thing about working in this industry is that all it really takes is a good internet connection. It keeps people living and working in these communities that might not otherwise have a lot of opportunity.”

The goal for Lobaki’s VR Academy and school programs are ultimately to reach as many students as possible. The Academy, which held its first sessions over the summer in 2017, brings students together over several weeks and immerses them in a professional VR studio environment. The programs within schools teach both students and teachers about VR technology and help them keep up with a quickly innovating landscape.

“Part of what we do is help vet new trends or technology to make sure the schools are teaching the right things,” Jordan said. “We are putting some serious hardware into these schools, so we want to make sure we are teaching the right things at the end of the day.”

These teaching programs bring an impressive array of state-of-the-art VR tools right into the hands of students and teachers, providing an opportunity to which few high school students or professionals have access – no matter where they live.

Although Lobaki has funded the lion’s share of these programs itself, with support from other local companies like C Spire, Jordan is most excited about the most recent revenue stream.

“The students’ work is actually funding the program,” Jordan said. “The plan is to train the students while creating games for the real world, which generates revenue that can go towards funding the program and training more students. The first group from the VR Academy last summer has already sold their game in sixteen countries.”

Jordan is enthusiastic about the efforts to get more exposure for these programs, as well as the VR/AR industry in Mississippi. He sees himself and Lobaki as evangelists for the industry, he said, creating opportunities for small communities in the South that have been left behind in the tech industry and consequently in economic development.

“I am constantly just trying to get out there and talk to people,” Jordan said. “I show up everywhere and say, ‘Here’s how you can apply this technology, and here is how we can help.’ We are already seeing a positive impact. Businesses are starting to catch on, people are starting to get it and I think any effort we make is going to have a big impact on the state.”

Members of the editorial and news staff of the USA Today Network were not involved in the creation of this content.